MRN

The aspiration of the Media Review Network is to dispel the myths and stereotypes about Islam and Muslims and to foster bridges of understanding among the diverse people of our country. The Media Review Network believes that Muslim perspectives on issues impacting on South Africans are a prerequisite to a better appreciation of Islam.

The delusions of the peace process

by MRN
January 1, 2013July 25, 2013

“Underneath these dark clouds of deception and delusion, the peoples of Occupied Palestine, as well as the several million refugees, endure their harsh daily existence while the world watches and waits, seemingly helpless.”

By Richard Falk

(source: Al Jazeera)

It is astonishing that despite the huge gaps between the maximum that Israel is willing to concede and the minimum that the Palestine Authority could accept as the basis of a final settlement of the conflict, governmental leaders, especially in Washington, continue to pull every available string to restart inter-governmental negotiations.

Is it not enough of a signal that Israel lacks the capacity or will to agree to an extension of the partial settlement freeze for a mere additional 90 days, despite the outrageous inducements from the Obama Administration (20 F-35 fighter jets useful for an attack on Iran; an unprecedented advance promise to veto any initiative in the Security Council acknowledging a Palestinian state; and the assurance that Israel would never again be asked to accept a settlement moratorium) that were offered to suspend partially their unlawful settlement activity.

In effect, a habitual armed robber was being asked to stop robbing a few banks for three months in exchange for a huge financial pay off. Such an arrangement qualifies as a transparently shameless embrace of Israeli lawlessness on behalf of a peace process that has no prospect of producing peace, much less justice. Justice here is conceived in relation to the satisfaction of Palestinian rights, especially the right of self–determination that has through the years been whittled down.

Christian attacks shameful

by MRN
January 1, 2013July 25, 2013

(source: Voice of the Cape fm Online)

The Gauteng-based advocacy group, the Media Review Network (MRN) has roundly condemns attacks directed at Christian communities in Nigeria, Iraq and Egypt this weekend. On Christmas Eve, three bombs exploded in the central Nigerian city of Jos, killing dozens of people. That area has seen more than 500 people die in religious and ethnic violence this year alone. Members of a radical Muslim sect, known locally as Boko Haram, claimed responsibility for the bombings and attacks on two churches in the northern city of Maiduguri the same night, killing at least six people.

In Egypt, a suicide bomber killed 21 people and wounded 79 outside a Coptic church on Saturday, in an attack President Hosni Mubarak said was the work of “foreign hands.” There was no immediate claim but Al-Qaeda has called for punishment of Egypt’s Copts over claims that two priests’ wives they say had converted to Islam were being held by the Church against their will.

And in Iraq on Friday, at least two people have been killed and 18 others wounded in a series of bomb attacks against the homes of minority Christians in different parts of Baghdad, police and interior ministry officials said on Thursday. Assailants in southwestern Baghdad threw two grenades inside the home of a Christian family, leaving two people fatally wounded and injuring five more. In a different neighbourhood, attackers planted a bomb near a Christian home. Two people were injured in that attack. Then another bomb planted near a Christian house in western Baghdad exploded, wounding one member of the family as well as a civilian.

“This shameful conduct and the horror associated with such misguided brutality cannot be condoned. The sheer senselessness of these bombings and the toll it takes on lives and limbs of innocent people, is utterly unacceptable. That such barbarity result in provoking counter-threats of violence against Muslims, undermines inter-faith harmony.”

According to MRN, victims of unjust wars and occupation of the type led by the American government and its western allies include persons from both faith groups – Islam and Christianity. “It therefore makes no sense that such victims who face enormous socio-political challenges within their respective countries, would turn on each other. Thus we urge for calm & call on the global community of both faiths to deny faceless agents of anarchy any opportunity to bedevil mutual harmony,” MRN said.

The outsourcing of war

by MRN
January 1, 2013July 25, 2013

(source: The Hindu.com)

José Luis Gómez del Prado, Chairman of the United Nations Working Group on the Use of Mercenaries, has provided a damning indictment of private military and security companies (PMSCs), the use of which has expanded hugely over the past two decades. In the early 1990s, the DynCorp company was contracted by the United States to air-spray Colombian cocaine plantations, train the national army, and dismantle drug rings.

By the middle of 2010, however, the U.S. Department of Defense had nearly 210,000 mercenaries in Iraq and Afghanistan, or about 20 per cent more personnel than the regular military. The worldwide U.S. total is about 240,000, with two-thirds of them coming from host countries and third countries. The main companies are American and British; many of their board members have come through the revolving door between high military ranks and the private war business. The industry, minuscule before 2001, now has a value of about $200 billion a year.

Some PMSCs are so notorious that they have changed their names (Blackwater, for instance, now calls itself Xe). In Iraq, they have intensified political instability and public hatred of the occupying forces. Blackwater/Xe may also have been involved in using white phosphorus as a chemical weapon in Fallujah. In Colombia, Washington gave DynCorp immunity from prosecution over long-term diseases, including cancers, caused by its spraying. In Croatia, MPRI company staff cannot be tried for ethnic cleansing (with which many Croatian officers have been charged). In Iraq, the mercenaries have immunity from criminal prosecution.

Dershowitz slander

by MRN
January 1, 2013July 25, 2013

By Iqbal Jassat – Chairman, Media Review Network

The Media Review Network (MRN) is appalled at the vicious attack by Alan Dershowitz upon Archbishop Tutu. (Businessday Newspaper, 5/1/2011, pg 3)

While we find his insulting remarks reprehensible and slanderous, we are aware that Dershowitz’s claim to fame is based on his role as an apologist for Israel.

This emotional outburst against Tutu is reflective of the high level of intolerance displayed by apologists such as him and others against people courageous enough to oppose Israel’s horrendous violations of human rights.

Far from being anti-Jewish or anti-Semitic, Tutu, unlike his pro-Israeli detractor, has a proud record of contesting oppressive regimes.

We call on South Africans of all persuasions to rally behind Tutu and support his brave stance in defense of Palestinian rights!